1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for managing bookmark folders. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method of listing bookmarks in a folder based on a scheduler or network connection.
2. Description of Related Art
As is well known by now, the World Wide Web (WWW) or Internet is a system of servers that support documents formatted in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML supports links to documents as well as to graphics, audio and video files. Links are references to documents from within other documents. Links allow a user to easily jump from one document or Web page to another with just a click of a mouse. Thus, a link is a very useful Internet navigational tool.
Another useful Internet navigational tool is a bookmark. A bookmark is a feature that is available in most Web browsers that allows a user to store Web addresses or URLs (abbreviation for Uniform Resource locators) of Web pages, that are to be later re-visited, into a folder (i.e., a bookmark folder). (A Web browser is a software application that is used to locate Web sites and display Web pages.) Patent number 6,037,944 issued to Himmel et al. and entitled NAMED BOOKMARK SETS as well as patent number 6,208,995 B1 issued to the same inventors and entitled WEB BROWSER DOWNLOAD OF BOOKMARK SET describe how a bookmark is downloaded into a bookmark folder. The description in both patents is herein incorporated.
Thus, when a user accesses a Web Page that may later be re-visited, the user may bookmark the page. However, sometimes some bookmarked Web pages may not be readily accessible. For instance, as a security measure against Internet intruders, most companies erect firewalls. A firewall allows computer systems that make part of a company's Intranet to freely communicate with each other. These computer systems are euphemistically referred to as being behind the company's firewall. A computer system that is not behind a company's firewall may not freely communicate with computer systems behind the firewall.
When an employee or user uses a computer system (such as a laptop) behind the company's firewall, the employee is able to access and bookmark Web pages located on computer systems that are behind the firewall. When the employee uses the computer system outside of the company's firewall, the employee may not be able to access bookmarked Web pages located on computer systems within the company's Intranet.
Presently, when an employee or user accesses a bookmark folder, whether the bookmarked Web pages stored therein are presently accessible or not, they are all listed as being presently accessible. Consequently, the user may unwittingly try to access a presently inaccessible Web page.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus to alert a user as to whether a bookmarked Web page is presently accessible.